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Hilton brings experience to New Orleans

Hilton Hotels Corporation has announced that Frederick Sawyers III has been named general manager of the 1616-room Hilton New Orleans Riverside (pictured) and Craig Mouney has been named general manager of the 317-room Hilton New Orleans Airport. Both of these hotels were forced to close briefly in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, but have since reopened.
Sawyers most recently served as hotel manager of both the Hilton New Orleans Riverside and the Hilton New Orleans Airport, where he recently distinguished himself during and subsequent to Hurricane Katrina. He reports to Andy Slater, area vice president of the South Central Region for Hilton Hotels Corporation.
A 20-year veteran of the hospitality industry, Sawyers began his career at the Westin St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco in 1985 as a management trainee. He then joined the Hotel Nikko in San Francisco before joining the Marriott Corporation in Sacramento, California. Sawyers then joined Doubletree in Portland, Oregon in 1996 and worked at both the Doubletree Hotel Portland-Lloyd Center and the Doubletree Hotel Columbia River before being named the hotel manager of the Hilton Portland & Executive Tower in 2000. While in Portland, Sawyers served on the Oregon Lodging Association in the roles of secretary and treasurer, and was appointed by the Portland’s mayor to the city’s Utility Review Board. Sawyers was transferred to New Orleans in 2003.
Sawyers is a native Californian who holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Stanford University. He also spent two years learning Japanese and serving as an English Instructor in Hakodate, Japan.
Craig A. Mouney has been named as general manager of the 317-room Hilton New Orleans Airport. Mouney most recently served as executive manager of the Hilton New Orleans Airport. He reports to Andy Slater, area vice president of the South Central Region for Hilton Hotels Corporation.
Mouney, a New Orleans native, began his career in the hospitality industry in 1989 after serving six years as a staff sergeant in the Air National Guard. After a two-year tenure with USA Host Hotels, Mouney joined Hilton in 1991 as a guest service agent at the same Hilton New Orleans Airport that he now runs. From New Orleans, Mouney’s career with Hilton took him to the Seattle Airport Hilton and the Hilton Brentwood Suites, in Brentwood, Tenn., before returning to New Orleans and assuming management positions of increased responsibility in both operations and food and beverage. He has served as executive manager of the Hilton New Orleans Airport since 2004.
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